It’s that time of year – the time when many people are packing up and heading away for a vacation. Sometimes, vacations are a good chance to unplug and spend quality time with your family and friends. But before you go, do you know all of the ways your BlackBerry 10 phone can help you vacation better?

Recently, we asked our followers how their phones help them vacation better. We want to share a few of our favorite tips, as well as some of our own.

1. Don’t Worry About Forgetting Something – Use BlackBerry Remember

@BlackBerryHelp It helps me in organizing all the things that I need to bring thru BlackBerry Remember.

Having a hard time remembering to pack your charger, lock the garage door, and shut off the lights? BlackBerry Remember has you covered! Stay organized like Mark does with the app, where you can create tasks and notes to keep you organized.

A Task allows you to set up a reminder (recurring or one-time) for yourself to complete a particular task – useful if you have to remember to set the alarm right before you leave.

A Note allows you to create a text note – useful for making packing lists or a list of jobs to finish before you leave.

You can add pictures to your notes or tasks, and you can create voice memos for yourself – so you can multitask while you make a packing list! To learn more about everything the Remember app offers, read this article.

2. Let People Know You’ll Be Away

Taking a vacation usually means taking a break from checking your work emails. Make sure the people who may contact you during your vacation know not to expect an immediate response by setting an out of office reply.

You can set automatic replies easily from the BlackBerry Hub. Simply

Tap

Got to Settings > Email Accounts

Choose the account you want to set up automatic replies for, and turn on Send Automatic Replies

Customize your own message!

And, even better, the BlackBerry 10 OS allows you to set up different out of office responses for those inside and outside your organization if your email account supports this feature.

So, if you want to tell your colleagues to hold questions until you return, but you want clients to be directed to another point of contact, you have that option! Just turn on the optional Send Automatic Replies Outside of the Organization. For more information, read this article.

3. Make a Plan – But Keep It Flexible With Your BlackBerry Calendar

@BlackBerryHelp Calendar app on #BB10 is the best I’ve used so far. I plan everything with different colors. Great OS

As J-P points out, your Calendar app is another great resource for trip planning. Add your flights, sight-seeing excursions, and more into your calendar. To add an event, open your Calendar app and hit at the bottom of your screen. Once you enter all the details, hit Save.

This can help keep you organized, but it can be flexible as well! If your plans change (as plans often do), moving a calendar entry is a simple matter of pressing and holding the Calendar entry, and then either click the to get rid of an event, or the to edit date, time, or even location.

When creating an event, you can choose which calendar you would like to save it under, if you have multiple calendars set up on your phone. This allows you to save your vacation calendar entries to your personal calendar, and keep them separate from your work calendar! You can also customize the color of each calendar, so you can tell the difference between multiple events. To do this:

In the Calendar app, swipe down from the top of the screen

Tap Settings, followed by Calendar Colors

Tap a calendar and specify your desired color

While on vacation, if you want to hide your work calendar so that you can just focus on your vacation activities, you can hide a calendar temporarily from within the Calendar app. In the app, swipe down from the top of the screen, tap , and uncheck the boxes next to the calendars you want to hide

4. Use Time Zone Preview to Get Your Timing Right When Traveling Across Zones!

@BlackBerryHelp Wherever I travel in the world I use time zone preview to get my schedule right. Documents to go keeps shopping list current

Another great travel tool is your BlackBerry 10 Clock app! As Richard points out, in addition to providing alarm, timer, and stopwatch functions, the Clock app also provides you with a world clock. You can add as many cities as you want by following these simple steps when in the Clock app:

Tap >

Tap

Enter a location

Choose a city

Tip: After you’ve added a city, clicking on the city name will pull up the current weather in that location!

This can be useful if you want to know the time in your destination, and it’s also great when communicating across time zones. When calling to check in on your parents, kids, friends, or anyone else, this function can help you ensure you’re calling at the right time, no matter the time difference between you while you’re away!

5. When You Get Back, Try Viewing Your Pictures on a Map. Especially for Road Trips, It’s a Nice Way to Relive Your Adventures!

This tip is a personal favorite of mine. When you get home, it can be easy to share your memories with others, or simply reminisce on your own. Using the View Pictures on a Map function on BlackBerry 10 can show you where each picture was taken, so you can retrace your steps!

Note: In order to view your pictures on a map, you must enable geo-tagging in the Camera app.

Were these tips helpful? Sound off in the comments if you have questions, comments, or more tips to share! Also, watch the @BlackBerryHelp Twitter channel for more content calls – who knows, we may feature your tip next!

To learn about your BlackBerry 10 smartphone, or troubleshoot an issue, there are several great options available to help. Visit http://blackberry.com/support for access to product documentation, how-to demos, tips and tricks, YouTube videos, support forums, knowledge base articles, Twitter support, and contact information for your region.

]]>http://blogs.blackberry.com/2016/07/how-your-blackberry-10-phone-helps-you-vacation-better/feed/0Holiday from HellecjamiesonMulti-ethnic family waiting in airportpriv_3dotvertical:)priv_plusBBM-TrashEditFTF_Calendar_Iconvaca_clockvaca_worldvaca_plusFamily packing mini van before vacationGetting out of Town? These 8 Apps Make Great Travel Companionshttp://blogs.blackberry.com/2015/08/getting-out-of-town-these-8-apps-make-great-travel-companions/
http://blogs.blackberry.com/2015/08/getting-out-of-town-these-8-apps-make-great-travel-companions/#respondThu, 06 Aug 2015 12:55:50 +0000http://blogs.blackberry.com/?p=27055/ Read More]]>

Summertime means vacation time and that usually means at least one or two great road trips. Whether it’s to the shore, the family cabin, the mountains, across country or across an ocean, the season is packed with memorable journeys. And when trips turn from business to pleasure, what is still right there by your side? Your smartphone, of course! It can help you plan your trip and have more fun because let’s face it, smartphones make great personal assistants when it’s time to hit the road.

Foursquare is still a good app for discovering what’s around you, from restaurants to landmarks, and checking in – notifying your Foursquare followers – when you arrive. Sharing your check-ins through BBM, Twitter and Facebook is effortless. For the full social networking experience of sharing your location, though, you’ll want to install the Foursquare companion app, Swarm, which adds messaging and emoticons and all sorts of other frills to your check-in. (You can easily jump back and forth between the two apps with a single tap.)Foursquare integrates beautifully with BlackBerry 10, pushing its “Go” action to BlackBerry Maps so you can find your way to the next desired location. The service learns what your tastes are and caters to them by providing appropriate information.

Take the stress out of gassing up with GasBuddy, which helps you find stations in unfamiliar cities with the cheapest gas. It gets that information by encouraging users to share the gas prices they see in their travels. Each time you submit a gas price, GasBuddy gives you points that that can be used to enter a daily drawing for $100 of free gas.

Avoid becoming the inspiration for the next Vacation movie complete with embarrassing misunderstandings involving language barriers.

With Navita Translator, you can either type or speak words or phrases and the app will translate them into the language of your choice. What’s really helpful is being able to listen to the translation, too.

For years, I’ve relied on Poynt to help me search for gas stations, restaurants, movies or even shopping. I could be quoted as saying “Let me ‘Poynt’ that out for you” time and time again.

While this is technically an Android port, I still consider this a BlackBerry app as we’ve been together for so long. Poynt is an extremely robust app; not only can you search for restaurants, you can get directions, make reservations or view the website. This app has way too much content to be ignored.

Android

The Expedia mobile app lets you seamlessly book flights and car rentals and enjoy mobile-exclusive hotel deals. On top of this, you can explore cities from around the globe, view your itinerary, check out package deals and discover what you can do while visiting your destination. Of course, you can also earn three times the Expedia+ points for every purchase you make.

Think all airport lounges are private or exclusive to first-class flyers? Not so. Many are available for a one-time fee and LoungeBuddy can help you find them the next time you’re stuck in the airport on a long layover or flight delay.

Just enter your itinerary and other information and LoungeBuddy lists a nearby oasis where you can relax, catch up on work or have a meal while you wait.

With PackPoint you’ll never forget to pack your swim trunks again. PackPoint uses facts that you provide about your trip, including the destination city, number of nights and planned activities, to present a list of essentials. It even takes the weather and laundry into consideration. The $2.99 version of this app works with Evernote and TripIt.

XE Currency is a straightforward currency converter that is perfect for accurate rates on the go. You can see at a glance what the rates are in every part of the world, searching by popularity, code or country. There’s even a currency profile screen that offers additional information such as the currency nickname, symbol and frequently used coins and banknotes. This app is a travel must – you can use it without an Internet connection or set it to update the exchange rate as often as every 60 seconds.

Mobile Means Business, Too

Smartphones are essential for getting tasks done and staying in touch with the office on our “work-cations” and strictly business trips, too, of course. In fact, more than half of corporate travel managers believe it’s important to involve mobile technology in their procedures, according to a survey by the CWT Travel Management Institute.

BlackBerry World and the Amazon Appstore are full of other great applications to help make sure your trip is a successful one. Care to share your travel experiences? Capture your trip in a BBM Channel; consider it a journal of your adventure.

When you think of a beautiful and relaxing summer day at the beach, in the garden, or by the pool, what sort of items do you picture yourself needing? At the beach you’ll need sunscreen, a blanket, and maybe a game to keep the kids occupied. In the garden, odds are that you’ll want a spade, plants, and a pretty good plan. By the pool, don’t forget a towel, pool toys, and a good book. Pay attention, because here’s the really cool part: The BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet can help replace one of these items no matter where you go this summer! Let me show you how:

Life’s a Beach!

Kids love the sand and the swimming at the beach, but sandcastles and shells can sometimes give way to sighs of “I’m bored” right when you finally get comfortable. BlackBerry PlayBook tablet to the rescue!

Encourage the kids to take pictures of their sand creations and send them to family members or post to social networks. Check out the photo frame apps in the BlackBerry App World™ storefront for that extra touch!

Fire up a game like TETRIS™ or Monopoly for the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet for the whole family to play while enjoying the waves.

Browse the Internet with the kids to learn the history of the beach and some of the wildlife that occupies it. Searches for “shark attack” should be avoided, however.

No Green Thumb, No Problem

While navigating the mysteries of your garden, budding botanists and pros alike may sometimes wonder what to plant where, what grows best in shade, and what’s with that leafy thing that never seems to die. The BlackBerry PlayBook tablet has your back again.

Browse the Internet to research the best places to plant, when to plant, and what to plant to create your dream garden. Some websites may even let you buy plants online and pick them up at the store.

Photograph plants you are unsure of whether to dig up or water, and share them with experts or friends to get the whole story. Was that poison ivy you just stepped on?

Show off your beautiful garden when you’re done by sharing 1080p HD movies and photos!

Poolside with the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet

An afternoon by the pool can be among the most relaxing of summer activities, but all that laying around can sometimes get a bit boring. After all, we are “BlackBerry People”, and we like to get things done! Here’s how the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet can help.

Load up a book in Kobo Reader and get lost in your favorite fiction, cower from a thriller, or swoon through a romance novel from the comfort of your deck chair.

Shoot high-quality HD video and pictures of the kids diving from the high-dive or jumping into the pool. You never know when you may need to access it later for an Olympic highlight reel or a wedding slideshow!

These are just a few suggestions and my favorite ways to use the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet in the summer, but I’d love to hear yours as well. Where will you and your BlackBerry PlayBook tablet go to chill?

You know that feeling you get when the kids are out of school, the weather is warmer, the days are longer, and you’ve finally found your favorite flip-flops? It’s summertime! One of the greatest freedoms that comes with summer is the ability to pack up the kids for a family vacation, or even send them to camp and have a mini-vacation all for yourself. Whatever your summer travel plans entail, you’re first going to want to grab these top travel apps for your BlackBerry® smartphone or BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet before leaving the house.

BlackBerry® Travel – By Research In Motion® Limited (RIM®)
This one is a must-have – and it’s free! Using the BlackBerry Travel app allows you to plan, book, and manage your travel plans by offering destination, hotel, and transportation options for finding the best price and most convenient flight times. You can also book your travel elsewhere online, and then pull your details into the app with the trip scanning feature; this gives you the whole itinerary right at your fingertips. BlackBerry Travel’s best feature? This app will notify your BlackBerry smartphone of a late or cancelled flight.

KAYAK Travel search Flights Hotels Cars Flight Status Trips – By Kayak.com
KAYAK rocks the bargain-hunting at a near mind-blowing level. Their app – which won the 2010 Gettie Award winner for best BlackBerry smartphone app – helps you to compare deals on flights, hotels, and car rentals across multiple websites for the best deal. If you like to travel on the cheap (and who doesn’t?), I highly recommend checking this app out.

Compass – A Premium GPS-based Compass – By SRID Games
Hikers, climbers, and outdoors enthusiasts of all skill levels can appreciate a good compass, and this one from SRID Games is a beauty. Using your BlackBerry smartphone’s internal GPS, Compass can help you find your way home from whatever adventure you’re returning from. This app also includes your movement speed (perfect for runners), latitude and longitude, and the direction of True North — which is perfect for trips to Canada to see your favorite OS, smartphone and tablet maker!

Navita Translator – By Navita Tecnologia
If you are headed abroad in your travels, this nifty free app Navita Translator is the perfect solution to make you seem like a local. Translator translates more than 50 languages, and can speak English, Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, French, German and Russian from words or phrases from e-mails, web pages, SMS messages or arbitrary text typed into the software. If you need to share your translations, Translator also allows you to send translations through Twitter®, email, or BlackBerry® Messenger (BBM™).

These are just a few of our favorite travel apps for summer that I collected from asking around the office, but I’d love to hear your contributions, too. How do you get the best deal, not get lost, or go native with your BlackBerry smartphone when you travel?